Hotaru (Fireflies)

In amazing parallax contrast I gaze
At the moon whispering lullabies with light.

I must write.

I cannot not write!
I take my share of this view,
Then shut the blind,
Leaving the rest for the rest,
Those who actually need its light
And the sweetest of songs it sings tonight,
Singing to the souls pulled away in undertow:
The children the age of my own,
The parents no different than my wife and I,
The old on cold gymnasium floors:
The dead who died this way.

My heart relents, letting mostly darkness rush in.

Today, the sun ablaze,
Racing home on high-speed train,
We stop in Hiroshima
I feel the souls of war pour aboard
Through our window like countless sieverts,
Invisible, but ever-present in this city’s air.
Their half-lives – infinite –
Illuminating our hearts like hotaru in jars,
Guiding us home.

March 19 & 20, 2011